Koditten's ZT mower-guided ramblings-shop journal

Don’t spill the beer!!
Looks great

 

Previous customer wanted an easy way to load the kids quad.

Still have some work to do yet.

 

Made some wall art for the niece and nephew.

 

Video if you are bored...

 

Bringing my own thread back to life. Figure there is enough interest in this sort of thing to support several threads of this style.

My latest project mower is 2006 Toro Z Master. 62" wide deck, 25hp Kohler.

I picked this one up a week and a half ago from a Toro dealer an hour south of me.

It's major issues were really bad oil leaks. I was informed that the seal on the left hydraulic pump had let go, thus slinging 15/50 oil all over the unit.

After 45 minutes of pressure washing I was able to see what was going on with the unit.

This was after pressure washing just what can be seen from above. Top looked fairly clean. After I got it on the hoist I found out my work was just getting started.




I hate pressure washing inside. I had no choice but to tend the thing with tarps and get dirty.

After another half hour washing it ended up looking pretty good.



I moved the unit over to the lift table to dry. I figured my hands were dirty enough for the day.

The next day I pulled the hydro pump.



I still had lots of cleaning to do after getting the pump out. I had 3 days until the seal kit showed.

 

While waiting on the seal kit, I decided to patch a few rust holes in the deck.





Patch panels prime painted.





While that was drying I needed to clean up the previous owners welds on cracked seat base. For some reason these seat bases always crack at this location. The previous owner tried to butt weld the crack in the sheet metal. It never works.

I cleaned up the welds and made cover pieces.

 

Pic of the resealed pump installed... Not a bad job, just messy as all get out.



LOL. I just went and looked at my title. I fucked up the spelling. It stays.

 

Threw some paint on the seat base.



Installed the deck after fully greasing the unit.


The only thing left to do is install the new gas cylinder steering dampeners. With those being blown, it's very hard to run the machine smoothly. It makes for a herky, jerky experience. Not fun at all. If a person has never operated a zero turn, it can be down right dangerous. You can see one of the gas cylinders to the left of the hydro pump in this pic.

 

I clean these up as a hobby and sell them for walking around money. I'm glad I didn't drag my feet on this one. A guy just left after putting money down on it.

I've know the guy for years. He is one of the hardest working guys I know. Honestly, I think he may be autistic.

Regardless, he asked me if I could do something with the price of the unit. I asked him if he was going to flip it or use it to make money for yourself?

He said it was for himself, not to resell. I told him "I want what I have into buying and fixing it".

FYI, this was going to the road for around $2900.

I sold it for a lot less than that.

I do know if my mower quits, I know who is mowing it!

 

@koditten

I see lots of ride on zero turns with engine swaps; have you done a walk behind mower? My father in law has a 54 inch deck walk behind with a motor that’s seized up and was “blowing out the spark plug” that’s mine for free. Was thinking an engine swap might just be the easier and better long term solution for a good mower.

 

I don't see why you couldn't go that route.

As long as the machine still is in good shape, a new motor is an easy fix.

 

Found this one up for sale this week.

4000 hrs on the 27hp Kohler Command. It still runs normal!

Has electrical issues. Will need tires, battery, steering dampeners and most likely a deck belt.

I'm sure there are bad idler pulley as well.

It's in pretty decent shape for having that many hours on it.

The bagger system is nice as well.

I'll know more after I pick it up Sunday. I'll get it on the hoist and go over it good and proper.

 

Sorry about the double pics. Those are copied from the add. The pics are so shitty it most likely lost a lot of potential buyers.

A win for me! In addition, this was only 5 miles away. I kinda like that.

 

I got the unit home. $900 later. I did NOT need another ZT project!

It was cheap AF and 10 minutes away. I couldn't pass up the opertunity.

Visually, before trying to start it:

Deck is solid and all spindles are free of any growl. Pretty sure the bearings are good.

May need a deck belt.

Tires are @ 75% of their life but are not cracked and still hold air.

1 of the front wheels has a bad bearing(s).

All idlers on the belt drive system are smooth. Good there.

Will need a battery.

Will need 2 anti scalp deck rollers.

Will have to bush the deck mounts. The 3/4" holes are egged out. Not surprising for 4100 hours.

 

doing some research I found that this unit is a 2010. The build date on the engine is 2018. I'm hoping the hours on the chassis is 4000 and the engine hours is much less.

I found that the key in the flywheel was sheared. Hopefully after I get it back together the engine runs fine. Fingers crosses.

I got as far as cleaning the engine, replacing the sheared key and cleaning the motor area of the mower.

 

Update on the Toro ZT.

I replaced the key in the flywheel and reassembled the motor.

I did find some issues that were bothering me. The previous tear down to change out the rectifier, the mechanic skipped out on installing a few shroud bolts. Not a big deal, but I couldn't put it back together with out those bolts. Fortunately one of my parts engines had these bolts.

Engine reassembled and installed in the chassis. Of course I had to clean both the engine and frame before this was done. It makes is so much easier to put things back together when I don't have to fight grime.

I did replace the retarded quick oil drain valve with a 12" 3/8" hydraulic hose and a pipe cap. The next owner will thank me.

I only hooked up the necessities for the engine to run. Gas, wire harness and choke.

Hooked up a battery to the cables and started the machine. It started

Great. The only issue I ran into was I forgot to anchor the electric clutch. It really shook the chassis. The whole clutch is not supposed top turn. Major unbalanced situation.

Regardless, I was happy with how smooth the engine ran after sitting for 15 months. I was sure there would be start up smoke from leaking valve seats into the combustion chambers. Zero smoke!

I still need to in stall the clutch anchor, deck belt idler pulleys, replace a bad bearings in the left front wheel. It will need a throttle cable and a choke cable. I'm on the fence if I want to change the rear tires. They hold air and are not checked.

 

Hunting up parts for this unit.

Toro is awesome for making their prints and parts easy to find.

Will need a choke and throttle assemblies.

Now that I have the part numbers, I can load the PN to Amazon or eBay and get a better price

 

Need to find this decal.

 

Update/to do items:

Hooked up the drive train. Hydros seem to be strong. No hesitation between forward and reverse. Of course, the unit it on jack stands, so no real world load.

As stated above, engine runs superb! No smoke on starting or hesitation apon starting. I do think the starter has a bad contact in the solenoid. Not a big deal. Easy fix.

Items worrying me:

Engine is not putting out voltage.

I ohmed the rectifier. That checked out within specks. Magnets in the flywheel were properly in place and non were delaminated from inside the FW.

Noticed the ground wire from the voltage regulator was bolted to the sheet metal FW backing plate. Usually it's bolted to the block.

Will change that on Friday and test. I hope that is the issue. Otherwise it's time to pull the engine again and install a new charge coil.

 

Got some time to dive into my charging issue.

Voltage regulator tests out, resistance on the rectifier test ok. Still plagued with the flickering battery light and no charge.

Started ringing out the wires. Found good continuity on just about everything except when I got to the key switch.

I freely admit I'm a mere novice on diagnosing wiring issues on small engines. I don't think the key assembly is supposed to come out in 2 pieces.

Prolly not good to be full of dirt, either.

I really hope this is the cause of the no charge issue. I do NOT want to take the engine out again to remove the flywheel.